Former garda who assaulted sleeping woman is jailed

The court was told that the man got into the woman’s hotel room and assaulted her while she sleptSASKO LAZAROV/PHOTOCALL IRELAND

A former garda has been jailed for two years for sexually assaulting a married woman while she slept.

The defendant, who cannot be named, went on trial this year charged with sexually assaulting a woman after getting into her bed in a hotel room. He was a serving garda at the time. As the trial was about to enter its final stages the man, who was married with children, changed his plea to guilty.

Judge Rory McCabe described the offence as “opportunist and repellent” yesterday and denied a request by the man’s legal team for a suspended sentence.

Castlebar circuit criminal court had previously been told that the man, who was a friend of the victim, had travelled with her and six other people to…

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